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Star Trigon: The Ride
Star Trigon: The Ride is a motion simulator ride In GoAnimateLand. It is inspired by the 1991 ride Back to the Future: The Ride. History Development and Opening The idea of a Star Trigon–based ride was first discussed in a 1986 meeting between Hiroshi Takajima and Nintendo's Gunpei Yokoi on the GoAnimateLand Japan backlot on the eve of the debut of the Mr. Driller anime series. Takajima recalled how his friend Miyuki Mittsuno had just taken him for a ride on Lucasfilm's Star Tours ride at Disneyland, telling Takajima that "Drillimation Studios could never do a Star Tours". Takajima requested that Mittsuno see what she can do with Star Trigon. At the time, the proposed concept of the GoAnimateLand California project was put on hold and considered to be dead, and, according to Mittsuno, Takajima's suggestion helped to bring the project back to life. Initial planning for the ride began in 1988. A roller coaster was the original concept for Star Trigon: The Ride, however, the designers realized it would be too difficult to effectively tell a story due to the fast motion. The second concept of a simulator ride ultimately came to fruition. Riders would board motion-based vehicles modeled after the Challenger Garaiga featured in the anime, and watch a film projected onto a large, dome-shaped IMAX screen. During the development of the ride, the designers traveled with foam models of the Garaiga to the Expo Centre in Vancouver, Canada, where an OMNIMAX theatre was the setting for trial runs of the ride's film. Intamin was eventually contracted to develop the ride system for the attraction. Star Trigon: The Ride was first unveiled in the February 1989 issue of The Drillimation Insider as one of the many rides being added as part of the new GoAnimateLand theme park, scheduled for opening in summer 1990. In July 1989, the ride was announced as a 1991 addition to GoAnimateLand Japan. Construction problems caused the attractions at both parks to have delayed openings. The attraction at GoAnimateLand California officially opened on May 2, 1991, costing $40 million. Foundation issues for the GoAnimateLand Japan attraction delayed the ride's opening to June 12, 1993, resulting in the total cost of the Hollywood attraction being put at $60 million. On March 31, 2001, a third installation of Star Trigon: The Ride opened at the new GoAnimateLand Florida theme park in Orlando, Florida. The buildings for California and Japan had completely different layouts. In California the two arenas were back to back. Designers found that this led to some operational problems so the Japan building was designed so that the arenas were on opposite ends of the building with the queue and pre-show in between them. The Japan building was also built upon huge rollers as opposed to being anchored into the ground as a precaution for earthquakes. In 2015, the Star Trigon gift shop in GoAnimateLand Florida was replaced by Gotchi Mart, a Tamagotchi-themed store. Refurbishment In mid 2006, first rumors surfaced that GoAnimateLand would be temporarily closing Star Trigon: The Ride for a refurbishment. Several rumors and hoaxes indicated it would be replaced by an attraction based on either the Crystal Island anime series or the Godzilla film franchise. On September 7, 2006, GoAnimateLand officially confirmed the refurbishment of Star Trigon: The Ride. According to a GoAnimateLand spokesman, the park had not formalized any plans for a replacement but decided to close and start refurbishing one half of the attraction immediately to "explore possibilities for future rides". The attraction's refurbishemnt was initially suggested by media to be as early as October 2006, however, it wasn't until March 30, 2007, that the ride closed for the refurbishment. The Japan ride's refurbishment started on Labor Day, September 3, 2007. In commemoration of its final month of the original operation, a special event was held with Susumu Takajima and Kagami Ochiai beginning the countdown to the ride's refurbishment in early August 2007. Additionally, a contest was announced with the grand prize winner receiving a classic 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 vehicle. Home media About two years after the ride opened, one of the ride employees recorded the entire ride projector footage, in-car footage, and pre-ride line footage from the master laserdiscs to a VHS tape and sold bootleg copies of it. Copies can still be found in online auctions, and some footage has been posted on YouTube. As a result, in February 2009, GoAnimateLand included all of the queue, pre-show and ride footage on the 2009 DVD re-release of Mr. Driller's Namtendo Blast as part of a second bonus disc. The DVD release includes some minor edits in the queue video portions. As a result of the editing, the music played during the queue videos has been removed, and a section when Susumu says "Yeah, let's do this!" has also been removed. In the main ride portion on the DVD release, the Challenger Garaiga based vehicle and ride cabin is virtually re-created (not totally accurate to the ride's dashboard). The time travel coordinates bear May 2, 1991 as the starting date in the beginning of the portion, which was the opening of the California attraction as well as the fictional opening of the Driller Institute within the ride. All of the pre-show and ride footage have been included as a special feature on the 2010 Blu-ray release. Transcript NOTE: All future Drillimation transcripts should use a bullet before them, and do not skip lines, like Blue Mario said. Pre-show *is researching Trigons *Wataru: "Let's see, about 20 Trigons discovered." *research outcome says that the 21st Trigon has yet to be discovered *Wataru: "The 21st Trigon? I gotta tell Susumu." *Wataru: "SUSUMU!" *walks to Wataru *Susumu: "What do you need?" *Wataru: "The 21st Trigon has yet to be discovered!" *Susumu: "The 21st Trigon, huh?" *turns to the guests *Wataru: "You there! At GoAnimateLand OF CITY! We need help from you to find the 21st Trigon! So, let's hop in the Challenger Garaiga and discover that Trigon!" *Susumu: "Yeah, let's do this!" *appears and the screen turns off Main ride Category:Drillimation Category:GoAnimateLand